Monday 5 September 2016

Time evolution in quantum mechanics


We know that an operator A in quantum mechanics has time evolution given by Heisenberg equation:


$$ \frac{i}{\hbar}[H,A]+\frac{\partial A}{\partial t}=\frac{d A}{d t} $$



Can we derive from this that $$ A(t)=e^{\frac{i}{\hbar}Ht}A(0)e^{-\frac{i}{\hbar}Ht} \qquad ? $$


L.M.: I added $i/\hbar$ in front of $[H,A]$.



Answer



We have to consider the operator, that doesn't explicitly depends on time.


$\frac{\partial A}{\partial t} = 0$


Let's apply commutator formula recursively:


$\frac{d^2 A}{d t^2} = \left(\frac{i}{\hbar}\right)^2[H,[H,A]]$


$\frac{d^3 A}{d t^3} = \left(\frac{i}{\hbar}\right)^3[H,[H,[H,A]]]$


e.t.c.


Then we combine those derivatives in a series for $A(t)$



$A(t)=A(0)+\frac{d A}{d t}t+\frac{1}{2!}\frac{d^2 A}{d t^2}t^2+\frac{1}{3!}\frac{d^3 A}{d t^3}t^3+...$


$A(t)=A(0)+\frac{i}{\hbar}[H,A]t+\frac{1}{2!}\left(\frac{i}{\hbar}\right)^2[H,[H,A]]t^2+\frac{1}{3!}\left(\frac{i}{\hbar}\right)^3[H,[H,[H,A]]]t^3+...$


And then you use this formula to arrive at the result:


$e^XYe^{-X} = Y+\frac{1}{1!}[X,Y]+\frac{1}{2!}[X,[X,Y]]+\frac{1}{3!}[X,[X,[X,Y]]]+...$


No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...